The Fare

A cab drives through the night road to pick up a passenger. The cab driver, Harris Caron, is listening to a radio show about time-traveling aliens who changed the nature of reality. A charming young passenger calling herself Penny gets into a taxi cab and asks to go to the corner of River and Elm. The car moves along a deserted dark highway, and Harris and Penny have a mildly flirtatious conversation. Suddenly, she disappears from the back seat of the car, leaving no trace. Bewildered, Harris contacts dispatch. The Dispatcher says he does not know what to do about a vanishing passenger and that Harris should just reset his fare and return to the city. Harris resets the odometer, and the prior events occur again more or less as they had before, though without Penny giving her name. The car crashes, and the barrier between the seats breaks. Harris grabs Penny's hand and asks if she is all right, calling her Penny. Penny says he used her name this time though she had not given it and tells Harris to remember her this time before she disappears. Harris again resets the meter, and the events occur again, this time with Harris having vague recollections of prior details. He realizes he has picked up Penny before. Penny, relieved, tells him the ride has occurred at least a hundred times, with Harris never remembering anything, suggesting they are trapped in a time loop that always ends with Penny disappearing and repeating the events. Through subsequent trips, their conversation grows more intimate. Penny, despite making up many humorous stories about her career during past rides, explains she is really in horticulture, which fits her floral attire and accessories. Harris explains he is a taxi driver because his father was, though he hates the job and felt his father wasted his life doing the task and he is doing the same. Penny is sympathetic but says she sees nobility in taking people to their destinations. She also feels trapped by her unhappy arranged marriage. Harris once had a girlfriend whom he met via a taxi ride, but the relationship had ended badly when she left him. Countless loops later, after Penny's disappearance, Harris decides to look for her. He does not reset his meter and drives down a different road, despite voices whispering to him to turn back. He eventually reaches a bright light where a dark figure demands he turn around. Harris resets his meter. He is still visibly upset when he picks up Penny again, and she comforts him, leading to them making love. Afterward, Harris notices a scar on Penny's head from when she hit her head in the car crash. The scar is old and Harris realizes they are not in a time loop but that time is actually passing. Penny is unable to answer his questions, but tells him to not drink his water before she disappears again. Harris does not drink his water and picks up a new passenger, an elderly man who asks to go to River and Elm. As he drives, Harris' memory of his old girlfriend return. The girl he had picked up in his taxi cab was in fact Penny, and they had spent a romantic summer together before she left suddenly. Harris subsequently died in a car crash. Harris takes the old man to River and Elm, a desolate place, and the old man pays him with a gold coin, like many other similar gold coins Harris finds in his cab. The Dispatcher calls to check in and tells Harris to get back to his job. Harris asks what is his job. The Dispatcher explains that Harris is his ferryman, a punishment given to him after his and Penny's relationship. The Dispatcher is Death, and Penny, who is actually Persephone, is his wife. Death had taken away Harris' memory of Penny, and Penny had provided water to erase his memory of his job. Harris had been unaware of years passing, only aware of when he drove Penny, something that happened yearly as she returned to the underworld. Harris continues his job and drives many different souls to the afterlife. After a year, it is again time to pick up Penny. She apologizes for everything and implores him to drink the water again for his own sake, but Harris says he has found nobility in his task and that he is grateful for their brief time each year to be together. He drops her off, and they express their feelings for each other before he drives away. (copied from Wikipedia)